This Is What Americans Heard During The Mysterious Cuban Sonic Attacks, And Why Experts Don't Buy It

Multiple neurologists and experts have told The Guardian that the mysterious 'sonic attacks' upon US diplomats in Cuba are likely just a case of mass hysteria. The extensive Guardian report is based on research and interviews with top neurologists and medical experts explaining that the likeliest explanation for the strange and inexplicable symptoms reported by US embassy staff in Cuba which have led to a breakdown in relations between the two countries has nothing to do with some kind of Cuban sonic device or high tech conspiracy.

The neurologists say that the most plausible explanation is that the diplomats' high stress environment is leading to neurological abnormalities and disorders which are causing psychosomatic (or self-induced) symptoms. If true it would be a shocking revelation that such a "natural cause" phenomenon could result in the US removing most of its embassy staff from Havana. The Guardian report was issued on the very day that the Associated Press published what it purports to be an audio recording of high pitched undulating sounds which some embassy workers in Havana claim made them sick. Reports indicate that 22 US victims have suffered mysterious ailments after working at the embassy, including hearing, visual, cognitive, balance, sleep and other problems.

US Embassy in Havana, Cube. Image source: RNZ via AFP

Though it took over a year for the complaints to surface in the media, it all started in the fall of 2016. Several of the affected diplomats were recent arrivals at the embassy, which reopened in 2015 as part of Barack Obama’s reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. The various accounts were strange yet similar: one diplomat, for example, described being jolted awake in a Havana hotel room by a grinding, blaring cacophony. When he moved a few feet across the room, the noise stopped. When he got back into bed, the agonizing sound hit him again; as if, he told doctors, he had walked through some invisible wall cutting straight down the middle of his room. Multiple personnel also reported persisted nausea, nosebleeds, headaches, and dizziness while stationed in Cuba.

The US State Department has deemed the occurrence to be deliberate attacks, though US officials have stopped short of pointing the finger directly at the Cuban government. But The Guardian is now casting significant doubts on the US allegations even while its report acknowledged the new audio recording obtained by the AP.

It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. A high-pitched whine, but from what? It seems to undulate, even writhe. Listen closely: There are hear multiple, distinct tones that sound to some like they’re colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard effect.

The Guardian begins by citing Alan Carson, a consultant neuropsychiatrist and former president of the British Neuropsychiatry Association, who explained, “Typically what one gets in a functional disorder is some trigger. It is often relatively mild and non-specific, it can be a minor physical injury. But then a combination of a degree of anxiety and also belief and expectation distort that feeling.” Carson suggested that initial reports of US staff hearing strange sounds and experiencing unusual sensations could have triggered similar sensations in others: “If there is a strong enough expectation that something is going to happen, that will distort in an entirely real way the incoming information,” Carson said. “In certain circumstances that can be transmitted from person to person... If one person has that experience strongly enough and sets off that train of thought in somebody’s else’s mind, that can happen too.”

Sound waves from a sonic attack on the US Embassy in Cuba? Image source: New York Post

The report futher cites Mark Hallett, head of the human motor control section of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, to introduce the likely possibility of a "mass hysteria" phenomenon. Hallet said, “From an objective point of view it’s more like mass hysteria than anything else.” This involves possible "functional disorders" taking root among small groups of people based on the power of suggestion in high stress close working environments. The Guardian explains further:

“Mass hysteria” is the popular term for outbreaks among groups of people which are partly or wholly psychosomatic, but Hallett stressed there should be no blame attached to them.

“Psychosomatic disease is a disease like anything else. It shouldn’t be stigmatized,” said Hallett, who is also president of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. “It’s important to point out that symptoms like this are not voluntary. They are not a sign of weakness in an individual’s personality.”

Hallet also noted the vagueness of the complains among the nearly two dozen embassy staff: “There are a very large number of individuals that have relatively vague complaints as far as I can see.” He said. “There has been an exploration of possible causes for this and nothing has been found and the notion of some sonic beam is relatively nonsensical."

“If it is mass hysteria that would clarify all the mystery – and presumably normalize US-Cuban relations again,” Hallett suggested. “These people are all clustered together in a somewhat anxious environment and that is exactly the situation that precipitates something like this. Anxiety may be one of the critical factors."

Audio released by the AP on Thursday purports to capture what American embassy staff heard in Cuba.

Jon Stone, a University of Edinburgh neurologist and leading author in the field also told The Guardan that such disorders were so frequent in society that it constitutes the second commonest reason people seek out neurologists. “There is a misconception that only people who are weak-willed, people who are neurotic, get these symptoms. It isn’t true,” Stone explained. “We are talking about genuine symptoms that people have of dizziness, of headaches, of hearing problems, which they are not faking.” Stone seconded Hallett's analysis of the mass hysteria phenomenon as "the outbreak could have started with one or two people falling ill with headaches or hearing problems, and those spread in a high-stress atmosphere and then amid talk of a 'sonic attack'."

One of the interviewed medical professionals went so far as to say it's likely that experts within American intelligence understand the "mass hysteria" possibility quite well. According to Dr. Robert Bartholomew, author and widely regarded expert on outbreaks of mass hysteria:

None of this makes sense until you consider the psychogenic explanation... American intelligence agencies are the most sophisticated in the world, and they reportedly don’t have a clue as to what’s causing the symptoms. I will bet my house that there are agents in the intelligence community who have also concluded that this is a psychogenic event – but their analysis is either being repressed or ignored by the Trump administration because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Mass psychogenic illness is by far the most plausible explanation.

Meanwhile The Guardian questioned the US State Department about the possibility of functional disorders, to which a spokesperson responded: “We have no definitive answers on the cause or the source of the attacks on US diplomats in Cuba, and an aggressive investigation continues. We do not want to get ahead of that investigation.”

We will be to the first to confess that the idea that this could all be much ado about nothing based on some kind of psychosomatic self-induced mass hysteria and panic event would be an explanation perhaps just as wildly unexpected and "out there" as the high tech sonic device attack scenario. Either one sounds like it could be the plot line for some sci-fi movie or X-Files type series.

Damn, I listened to that, and now I keep falling down and can't see very well. Seriously though, a recording is not going to get the job done here. If it's some sort of microwave event, it will behave differently on a human brain than a microphone. If it's demodulation of ultra high frequency audio down into the audio spectrum, that's not going to demodulate the same in a microphone as it would in your skull.That said, I like the theory that at least some of these guys are faking it. It's too easy to jump on board the band-wagon for the governement disablity benefits. "Yeah, now that you mention it, my balance seems to not be what it used to be too!".

I know this sound.I dated a girl who's apartment bedroom window was right next to a security light/street light. The thing was gawd-awful loud and sounded exactly like this recording.Perhaps that's what drove the poor girl bat-shit crazy!

Honestly, who gives a shit? Cuba is a stupid communist shitshow. Why do we continue to tolerate its existence as a communist state, given that it is 90 miles from Florida? Just invade it already, put /ourguys/ in charge, and leave. This is a fucking no brainer.

It sounds like an IR backscatter laser hitting SF6 molecules in the air. That's a leak detection technology that the electric utilities use to find SF6 leaks in their high voltage switchgear (breakers). When the invisible laser hits SF6 it chirps, and the sound is everywhere and no where at the same time. Very trippy. It renders your sense of accoustical directionality dead in the water.

Honestly Fuckaroo Banzai, You are a is a stupid shitshow. Why do people continue to tolerate your existence ? given that it is 90 feet from someone else's house? Someone should just invade it already. We should put someone else in charge, and take your things. This is a fucking no brainer.

Good question Buckaroo Banzai - especially since Russia doesn't have missiles there anymore.It would probably just become another Cuba, especially after 50+ years of Marxist crapaganda.The Mayor of Puerto Rico would move there in a flash though, and run for office immediately!The Corporate/Bankster overlords will despoil it soon enough; cruise ships, trinkets from China, etc.

This is a crock of sham-shit science article.
The frequencies that hurt can not be heard above
and below the fletcher-munson curve.
Its ultra (above 20k) an infra (below 20) and that
multiband readout is from 4k to 10k?

Approx three decades ago a TV technology show told us about a way to make audible sound waves (20 Hz - 20 kHz) directional. They encoded the sound onto very high frequency sound (I can't remember what range or even if they told us) and played via two speakers with the two very high frequency carrier waves 180 degrees out of phase. When the two signals intersected, the high frequencies cancelled each other out, leaving only audio. The idea was you could have two or more sets of speakers near each other and listeners only heard the program that was in their immediate area. On their little patch, all the other audio tracks were still in the very high frequency range and thus inaudible.So yes, using this trick you can make audible sounds highly local and the technology has been publicly known for at least 3 decades. And there is still a possibility that while the noise these people heard was in the audible range, the noise that hurt them was in the very high frequency range and they didn't hear it although it co-incided with the noises they did hear. And if the high frequencies caused health problems then that would explain why I never heard of that technology again after that show.

Kinda stopped here giving credence to this response at the above statement.
Who the fuck uses TV as their credible, one-stop, data source?
There was NO question made as to making "audible sounds ... highly local"

The sonic 'weapons' all deal with 1) a specific frequency or 2) EXCESSIVE SPL, or 3) combination of the two.
I read about freq carrier phase cancellation in a popular mechanics in a doctors office a long time ago. The advertising agencies were super excited about it ..
The basic premise is correct for ultra-high freq carrier signals. The science of it is a bit more complex.

"I read about freq carrier phase cancellation in a popular mechanics in a doctors office a long time ago." Is this the same Popular Mechanics Magazine that "proved" the official 9/11 report & "debunked" the controlled demo story ??Seems like u need to check your OWN "sources" before berating others....

stitch-rock: They coulda been lying, but it sounded like the kind of lie that would be of absolutely no benefit to them what-so-ever and too easily debunked and used to embarrass them. Not that that kind of logic ever stopped liars from lying. But now you have a whole internets to do some research and find out for yourself. Or you could just try and build one yourself. Or you could just see DisorderlyConduct's comment down below.

Worked with it. It's real. If i remember the carrier was 48kHz. We installed it in amusement parks and other venues that required audio to be coming from an area where mounting speakers was problematic. The beam bounces off of stuff real well.Now think for a bit. What about a microwave carrier and some ELF audio. If you could demodulate that inside a specific volume, say someone's head... I'd not get near such a thing.Recall that one recent torture technique discussed here was the open microwave trick. This could be along those lines although I thought the actor before was NK not Cuba.

I went to Cuba a couple of times last winter, needless to say but I was targeted by the Cuban government as well. I have since been able to identify the sounds and visuals that the Cubans used to attack me, it's driving me crazy and has instilled an impulsive desire to return to Cuba. It's almost like they have some kind of weird control over me. Brace yourself and listen and watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vJdESR4H88

Mass psychogenic illness? Yea, I can picture that: just look at those diplomats' work place. It just looks like a prison: a bunker with a high fence arround it to keep the communist monsters out and the shivering diplomats in. Add some recently whipped up neo-mcarthyism to the mix and you have the perfect climate for a psychogenic event.https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Foncubamagazine.com%2Fwmag%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F07%2Fus-embassy-havana-755x490.jpg&f=1Gringos should learn to relax, view Cubans not as communist monsters, but as human beings just like themselves. Heck, Cubans are way better at enjoying life, have a party on a Caribean beach, make a camp fire, make music and dance through the night. Get out of your paranoid bunker-prison, join in and make yourselves comfortable: they got excellent rum and cigars and incredibly friendly people. No psychiatric treatment can beat that!

High frequency sounds attentuate rapidly in the air. They wouldn't travel more than a few meters. That's why everything at a distance is low frequency rumbling. I'm pretty sure that the nausea and suffering was caused by the TV monitors paying CNN 24 hours a day.

Oddly enough the Cubans working and living within talking distance of the inflicted Americans, never seem to suffer any of the symptoms ??How truly exceptional. as an aside; I recorded the sound on an old reel to reel and then slowed it down and, it's definitely a chant.maga, maga, maga .. or something like that .

Bullshit. I have been under extreme stress many times in my life - often for months at a time, even years - and have never heard crickets in my ears. I did drink a lot however and once thought I heard Elvis talking to me.......